Chapter 73 Brother Against Brother
Lucifer closed the distance between them one deliberate step at a time, the floor warming beneath his feet as if afraid to bear his weight. Shadows uncoiled around him like living smoke, responding to the heat rising in his chest.
“Why, brother?” His voice didn’t rise it thickened, heavy enough to bend the air. “Why would you dare bring war into my realm?”
The room answered before Michael did.
A sharp crack split the air, and all the windows burst outward at once. The wind dragged the curtains into a frenzy as glass showered down in bright, deadly fragments.
Michael didn’t flinch. He stood rooted, spine straight, a lone shard of glass gliding down the front of his robe before clinking onto the floor. A small, cutting smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
“We both know you started this,” he murmured, though the tremor in his hand betrayed the pain twisting through him.
Lucifer’s wings unfurled an inch just enough for the shadows along the walls to quake.
“What exactly did I start?” he hissed. “I punished a woman who murdered her own child. Judgment is mine to give.”
Michael’s eyes sharpened. “You had no right to kill her. Your dominion ends at her soul. Not her life.”
The words didn’t just land they sliced.
Lucifer froze, and the entire office seemed to freeze with him. Even the smoke from a burning candle hung suspended in the air. Then a sound broke the silence: a low, dark laugh that curled at the edges like charred paper.
It rolled out of him slowly, thick with something unreadable.
Michael’s brows pulled together. “What’s amusing?” he snapped, though frustration cracked around the edges of his voice.
Lucifer stepped closer until their shadows fused on the broken floor.
“Is that why you’re clawing at my realm?” he asked softly, dangerously. “Or” his voice dropped to a whisper that carried like thunder“is it because I made you spill my blood on the altar in Crimson Eden?”
Michael’s grip tightened so sharply on his staff that the ancient wood creaked. The weapon pulsed once with unstable light.
Lucifer’s eyes darkened, a storm gathering behind them.
“I warned you about the prophecy,” Lucifer said, each word slow and deliberate. “You refused to believe me. And when it unfolded exactly as I foretold… you broke.” He leaned in, gaze piercing. “Because you raised your sword against me. And it cost you half of what makes you an archangel.”
A flicker of shame quick, violent crossed Michael’s face before he buried it.
“Tell me, brother…” Lucifer’s voice softened to a taunt. “Is that why you hide among humans now?”
Lucifer began to move, circling Michael with slow, measured steps. His boots crushed shattered glass underfoot, each crack echoing through the torn-apart office. He studied his brother the way a predator studies a wounded animal—curious, cold, savoring the shift in power.
“You never liked humans,” he murmured, his voice brushing the air like a blade. “You barely tolerated them. Yet here you stand, using them like chess pieces… all to finish what you began.”
The shadows trembled as Lucifer stopped directly in front of Michael, their faces inches apart. Michael’s breath hitched, barely noticeable but Lucifer caught it.
“And now that I think of it…” Lucifer tilted his head, eyes narrowing. “Luca taking Monica to the vampire realm—that reeks of you.”
A muscle jumped in Michael’s jaw.
The only betrayal of guilt.
Lucifer’s smirk sharpened, cruel and knowing.
“You cast a love spell on him,” he said, each word deliberate. “You pushed him into her bed. Watched her belly swell with that child. And then you lured her into Crimson Eden… just so Selena’s bloodline would bloom.”
Michael said nothing. Not a protest. Not a denial.
His silence was a coffin closing.
The staff in his hand flickered dangerously, light sparking along its length as if his restraint was splintering. His wings twitched, feathers trembling with barely-contained fury.
Lucifer stepped closer, lowering his voice until it carried like poison in the air.
“Tell me, Michael… does Father know what His faithful son has been doing?”
Michael’s eyes flickered fear, shame, defiance all battling at once.
Lucifer leaned in, voice soft as a threat.
“How will He feel when He learns that Michael the Archangel His golden boy is more deceitful than Lucifer Morningstar, the King of Hell?”
He withdrew slowly, savoring the way Michael’s composure cracked around the edges.
Then Lucifer smiled a slow, devilish curve that darkened the entire room.
“Maybe we should trade places, brother.”
AUTHOR NOTE
Hello, amazing readers!
Thank you for diving into this chapter with me I hope it gave you all the chills and drama you were expecting! I’m curious… who do you think has the upper hand right now, Lucifer or Michael?
Drop your thoughts in the comments! And don’t forget to like and subscribe so you can follow every twist and turn. Your support really keeps this story alive!